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 Hey guys, what’s up? I was in Atlantic City all weekend and just opened my laptop for the first time now. I know, right? I can’t believe I was able to stay away. I’m pretty impressed, if I do say so myself. So… hmm. Let’s just check Philly.com and see what was in the papers the past few days. Hmm, what’s this one?
Two black employees at the city’s trash transfer center in Roxborough have sued the city for discrimination, claiming their supervisor assigned blacks a separate bathroom and reserved a water cooler for white workers only.
…
I’m sorry, I thought I just read that two black employees sued the city, alleging that a supervisor made separate but equal bathrooms and water coolers. But there’s no way I just read that. Let’s try starting this story again.
Two black employees at the city’s trash transfer center in Roxborough have sued the city for discrimination, claiming their supervisor assigned blacks a separate bathroom and reserved a water cooler for white workers only.
Oh. Hmm. Well that certainly doesn’t seem right. That inspires neither hope nor change!
In an interview, Young said whites and blacks at the center were not allowed to use the same bathroom. In one case, he said, a black worker had to walk down five flights of stairs because he was prohibited from using a whites-only bathroom.
“They are still doing the same thing,” Trubman said about the alleged discrimination.
Young is on sick leave in an unrelated matter, and Trowery still works at the center, according to Trubman.
During a heat wave in the summer of 2007, Young said, Gill took away the water cooler from black workers in the scale building “because he said we were using it too fast.”
Is ‘black people drink water faster than white people’ a stereotype? I guess it is now.
As with all lawsuits, who knows if this is true. The city said it intends to file a response. The allegations certainly are way out there, but (as we all know) people are bonkers. (The Philly.com commenters have dismissed it immediately, so that makes me think it’s true.) Anyway: I believe Philadelphia has welcomed me back after a weekend away. Sorry to leave you, buddy.
2 black city workers claim bias in lawsuit [Inquirer via Hickey]
Photo by jillclardy used under a Creative Commons license
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